


Daniel Jackson and the Language of Empire

by Solstice0612



Series: Vexing Questions [1]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M, Gen, Set during Continuum (SG-1 movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-06
Updated: 2014-05-06
Packaged: 2018-01-23 20:25:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1578404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solstice0612/pseuds/Solstice0612
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Why do so many people speak English around the galaxy? Here is an answer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Daniel Jackson and the Language of Empire

**Author's Note:**

> My sincere thanks to my beta Jan Kent for her generous help. Disclaimer: These characters belong to MGM, I am just playing with them. Not copyright infringement intended.

The handsome couple waited by the door of the imposing reception hall for the right moment to make their grand entrance. Against the golden walls of the sparsely decorated anti-chamber the dark, shimmering fabrics that hugged their bodies betrayed the lavish taste of the Goa’uld. Lining both sides of the long corridor outside, the Jaffa guards confirmed the couple’s heightened status. As soldiers, it was their duty to stand in impassive attention and ignore the acrimonious argument that went on inside the chamber.

 

“Ba’al, you refuse to tell me about this world.”

 

“Darling, you are going to love it. Trust me.”

 

“How many times are we going to have this argument? It is you who refuse to trust me, my beloved.”

 

“Qetesh, have I not explained to you--on several occasions, I might add--that I have kept track of this world for a long time. That my host was born here is common knowledge.”

 

“But I have been your consort queen for centuries! Why have you kept all this information that you have tracked hidden from me?”

 

“Our empire is vast, I don’t want to bore you with all my tedious little projects.”

 

“Would you call what you are about to do here a tedious little project?”

 

“It has come to fruition rather well, has it not? Isn’t that all that matters, darling?”

 

“I saw you monitor the communications planet side. How do you know what to look for? How is it possible for these Tau’ri to speak the common language?”

 

“I do not know. I am baffled, just like you.”

 

Suddenly, the reception hall door opened and the bass voice of Ba’al’s First Prime Teal’c announced their entrance. Silence fell as the Jaffa noisily stood in stiff attention. The couple was forced to abruptly end their argument. Projecting an unquestionable air of absolute authority, they entered and sat on their ceremonial thrones.

 

Qetesh hid her impatience with the irritating evasiveness demonstrated by her consort. No matter how she looked at things, they did not add up to her satisfaction. Quietly, she began to consider her next move.

 

The beautiful Goa’uld recognized that there were too many and potentially dangerous unknowns in Ba’al’s baffling strategy. However, the task of solving them was not as important as taking control of the situation. Ba’al’s actions deviated in subversive ways from well established Goa’uld codes for grounding their power. Such blatant undermining of their authority should not be allowed to continue. Ba’al kept promising the Jaffa their freedom. But if they were free to do as they willed, how would they serve the Goa’uld larva they nurtured with their own bodies? The Goa’uld were made to rule over lesser creatures. Any threat to the survival of their own superior species was unthinkable. Yet, her stubborn consort persisted in encouraging such foolishness.

 

Qetesh strengthened her resolve to wait for the right moment to make her move and take control. The others, just as impatient with all this nonsense as she was, would approve. She would find the answers she sought later, when it became convenient. Until then, she would continue to play her role of compliant consort during the formal proceedings before her.

 

With an affable smile, Ba’al welcomed the envoys of all the System Lords under his tight control, who had been dispatched to confirm the arrival of their masters for the following day. Ba’al wanted all of them to personally witness his conquest of the First World. Of course, he would use their ships and give them their share of the spoils, but only if they accepted his command without question.

 

He only allowed Qetesh the privilege of challenging him. She was smart but completely out of her depth. For him, her defiance was simply a form of entertainment, perhaps even a form of foreplay.

 

The first envoy bowed deeply in front of the couple and began his well rehearsed speech.

 

“My Lords Ba’al and Qetesh, please accept my humble greetings. I bear news of your most faithful servant, Lord Camulus, who eagerly awaits his visit tomorrow to personally affirm his continued loyalty, My Lords.”

 

Trying to outdo each other with their florid language, the envoys placed at Ba’al’s feet, as if it were a most precious gift, the faithful service of their masters. Apophis’s recent defeat and humiliation had spread a degree of fear for the future of the Goa’uld leadership. Everyone wanted to be perceived as loyal subjects but Ba’al had anticipated all their moves. He grew bored with the protocol formalities and his mind wandered away to consider with complacent self-satisfaction the strategies that had given him this golden moment of triumph.

 

Upon learning about the Tau’ri, infiltrating the SGC, and getting full access to their mission briefings, Ba’al had quickly invested in two key scientific projects. He had replicated himself into multiple clones and built a machine for strategic interventions in the timeline.

 

His secret network of clones had functioned for millennia to assure their mutual power. All surviving Ba’als now lived in splendor beyond measure, even though some had to be sacrificed to achieve their common ends. They all knew what had to be done and had agreed to these terms from the very beginning. The Ba’al clone brotherhood had prepared well for this moment, when he, their leader, would come back to Earth in triumph to claim it for all of them; claim its considerable riches, its unparalleled ability to create progress, its ingenuity to produce the most effective weapons, its capacity to provide countless humans to seed so many empty worlds now under his control.

 

He had thought of so many details! He had even charged a dozen of his fellow Ba’als with the task of going further back in time to prepare for this moment by spreading and enforcing, along with their authority, the use of English throughout the galaxy. They had turned it into the common language that would facilitate the establishment of Earth as the center of his galactic empire.

 

Of all the things he had done, the spread of English had been the most difficult task and yet the easiest one to achieve. He had even gotten his enemies to do the job for him. His clones had somehow planted the seed into Asgard thinking that spreading English would help humans re-connect to the First World.

 

Suddenly, a thought rose in his mind. What if it had been one of the Ascended who planted the seeds in him to carry out such as a vast plan of linguistic engineering? But for what purpose? The strategic advantage that this had given the Tau’ri he had taken away. At any rate, who would care whose idea it was? Not him! The Ascended no longer interfered with the fate of the galaxy. All that mattered now was that he, Ba’al, had achieved the impossible. The authority of Ba’al, the greatest System Lord in cosmic history, would have no impediments, no bounds, and no enemies left to challenge his power.

 

Satisfied with the results of such vast labors, Ba’al sat back on his golden throne with a smug smile on his face.

 

Sitting by his side, wearing her face like an impenetrable, beautiful mask, Qetesh waited.

 

-Fin-

 

===


End file.
